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Tip: Now you can run Chrome 64-bit stable on Windows

In June, Google began testing the 64-bit version of Chrome for Windows. It was available only in the beta channel (Dev and Canary branch) users. Today it became available to the rest of Chrome users. With version 37 of Chrome, there is now a native 64-bit stable build available for Windows. Google claims several benefits of running a 64-bit browser over the regular 32-bit version.

The 64-bit Chrome is more stable, according to Google. The performance has improved when browsing standard web content. 64-bit Chrome generates graphics and media content faster according to Google. This can be checked with YouTube: Chrome uses the VP9 decoder to play YouTube content. In Chrome 37, the performance has increased by 15%.

But the most important thing is a bug fix: this version addresses a bug discovered in the Pwn2Own 2014 contest due to an improved Partition Alloc security feature.

Note that the 64-bit version of Google Chrome does not support NPAPI plugins (legacy Netscape plugin API). If you use any plugins that depend on that NPAPI, you can still continue to use the 32-bit version as long as Google supports it.

Please note that Chrome 64-bit for Windows will replace the 32-bit version of the browser completely. There is no official way to run 32-bit version and 64-bit version of the Google Chrome browser simultinateously. Please let us know if you know of a way to do this.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.